Thought the film is a little slow at times I was struck by the small details of the film. Shultze's friends reminded me of my hometown and the folks who live and die there ..York, Pennsylvania. Many of those folks have German background as do I so maybe it's a German thing. The whole oppressive overlay of dead-end jobs in a dead town with the daily drinking to blur the boredom was much like life back home. As was the firm rejection of everyone of anything new or different, the clinging to traditional music at the festival, Shultze always living in the shadow of his father. You sensed that he suddenly woke up at the end of his life to realize he had wasted it. Yet Shultze was always a little different so I was not too surprised when he tried to get to America..his little garden of flowers and washing the gnomes next to his little old shack of a house. His attraction to the lady in the nursing home, his drive to raise money to go to Texas, only to run away when he found the same life replicated there. His trip through the bayou was like his own journey to heaven..reminded me of Being There as everything fell his way. Great filming done in this flick, the quiet scenes, the views of the country, the coal mountain against the lake, the boat trip, food for the senses as I took in the message..it's never too late to find happiness in life and how one person can touch so many. And of course the genuine kindness of strangers..which was a bit over the top as he wandered the deep south. I wonder if that would really happen in today's Texas....oh, and I loved the music!!
Review of Schultze Gets the Blues
